Editor,

RE: "Catholic Church apologises for role in 1994 Genocide” (The New Times, November 21).

Before some of us begin singing hallelujah, we will need to read their statement and analyse it carefully to see whether it isn’t a mere half apology intended to help them wriggle out of the moral and legal morass in which they have been wallowing all these years. We will also want to see the practical effects of this "apology.”

Will the Catholic Church, for instance, stop protecting the likes of Wenceslas Munyeshyaka from justice? Will the Holy See finally recognise the pain its institution has inflicted on Rwandan society and seek to make good faith amends, or will it continue to act in concert with other revisionists?

There are still many questions requiring clarification before I am prepared to take this apology at face value.

Mwene Kalinda

***************************I really don’t see any apology in their letter. Arguing that some of their members are individually responsible because they were not sent by the Church is just a fake apology/argument.

A question: Were pedophiles sent to abuse children by the Church? Why did the Pope apologise then? Who taught genocide ideology? Isn’t it André Perraudin? Later priests like Misago, Seromba, Munyeshyaka, and many others?

The ideology was taught by Rwandans who learned it from their White Fathers masters. Those Rwandan priests are the ones who later on killed and raped Tutsi.

Finally, as if all of that were not enough, they helped their fellow priest génocidaires escape and provided them with a pass in order to be able to preach outside of Rwanda (the case of Munyeshyaka...)

Let us never forget that Genocide denial runs deep in the Church. And, parishes did not read that fake apology letter. Others simply did not read it as it was written.

Urujeni